Charlo’s KO of Douglin highlights undercard stoppages

Junior middleweight prospect Jermell Charlo remained undefeated with a one-punch knockout of once-beaten fellow prospect Denis Douglin in a key undercard bout to the Victor Ortiz-Josesito Lopez main event at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Charlo (18-0, 9 knockouts), of Houston, Texas, connected with a straight hand that dropped Douglin flat on his back one minute into the fifth round. Douglin (14-2, 8 KOs), of Marlboro, N.J., got to his feet by referee Wayne Hedgepeth’s count of eight, but his legs were too wobbly to allow him to continue. Hedgepeth waved the Showtime Extreme-televised bout off at 1:12 of the round.

Prior to the stoppage, Douglin had been the busier, and at times, more aggressive of the two athletic prospects, but he couldn’t avoid Charlo’s straight right, which the tall and rangy boxer-puncher timed well from the outside. Charlo landed 45 of 86 power punches (a 52 percent connect rate), according to CompuBox, and most of those shots were right hands.

The rest of the undercard featured knockouts as well.

Heavy handed lightweight prospect Omar Figueroa (18-0-1, 15 KOs), of Weslaco, Texas, made quick work out of Alain Hernandez (18-11-2, 10 KOs), stopping the Tijuana journeyman in the first round.

Hard-punching junior middleweight prospect Michael Finney (9-0, 7 KOs), of Pahrump, Nev., had to work hard to earn a four-round decision over game and iron-chinned Joel Vargas. Finney, who won by unanimous scores of 40-36, hit Vargas (3-7-1, 3 KOs) with everything in the first two rounds, but the harnosed journeyman from Durango, Mexico just kept stalking forward and lobing haymakers – some of which penetrated Finney’s high guard.

Finney, who was cut in the corner of his right eye going into the third round, was forced to the ropes by Vargas at the start of the fourth round but he rallied to take the round and earn a shutout in a crowd-pleasing fight.